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Half of people with multiple sclerosis end up in a wheelchair. Janet Wood is determined not to be one of them.

A single mother of two daughters, 16 and 18, Wood is 48. She was diagnosed with MS 19 years ago, when she was at 29.

“I’m still mobile,” Wood said. “The story is, 50 per cent of people with MS end up in a wheelchair within 15 years. I have no intentions of getting into that wheelchair. My goal is to do the Grouse Grind again.”

MS is an inflammatory disease that affects the ability of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord to communicate with each other. The disease has a wide range of possible symptoms, from loss of sensitivity to muscle weakness to difficulties with coordination and balance.

Sometimes Wood needs to walk with a cane, and her gait can be “a little spastic. It’s not easy walking.”

She maintains a “super-positive” attitude about her prognosis, however. She’s a Christian, and her beliefs about her health are informed by her faith in “the ultimate healer.”

“But I’m also very aware of alternative treatments. Because I’ve had the disease for so long, I have experienced many of them. Alternative treatments for anything can give us hope but they can also be very expensive.”

One of the most effective has been switching to a vegan diet and, for a time last year, eating only raw food.

Following a flare-up of the condition in 2007, Wood was unable to move her right leg. “I couldn’t drive the car,” she recalled. “I’m a single mom so there’s only me to drive.”

She’d previously tried an antioxidant called Glutathione for a mild flare-up of MS. “It worked almost overnight,” she said. “This time, nothing. So I thought, what if I go back to vegan food? Within 72 hours I was driving a car completely normally. For me, food has been the biggest thing. It’s also the hardest thing to be long-term compliant on.”

She said, half-jokingly, that this is because she is “an emotional eater.”

The medical science behind Wood’s recovery “is people with MS relapses get better,” Dr. Tony Traboulsee, medical director of the UBC Hospital Multiple Sclerosis Clinic, said. “What component of getting better she was destined to do, and what she could attribute to the diet is going to be hard to sort out. The important thing is, she got better.”

In general, Traboulsee said, “diet manipulation is a good thing to try for MS, and any kind of medical problem. The science behind it, though, is lacking. The theory is good. There are some neurologic diseases that are related to diet. I think the key with trying diet manipulation is to decide what you want out of it: are you trying to cure your disease or are you trying to feel better? Then you can decide how long you’re going to give it.”

Besides her diet, movement is also vital to Wood’s well-being. Her “best time ever” for doing the Grouse Grind, she said, is 43½ minutes. She started doing the uphill climb after MS was diagnosed. She can still climb uphill, but now she climbs a set of outdoor concrete stairs in North Vancouver that have a railing. She also works out in a pool and on a Power Plate, a vibrating exercise machine that helps her with balance. Recently, she bought a tricycle.

“I know my kids are embarrassed by it,” she said. “But it gives me a huge sense of freedom. I get to go out in the neighbourhood and I get to ride my version of a bike.”

She’s also tried acupuncture, a hyperbaric chamber, and kombucha tea. “I’m often looking for the missing puzzle piece. A lot of people want to be cured, that’s all they’re going for. My goal is more about quality of life.”

She hasn’t had an MS flare-up since 2007. But she’s never recovered completely from that one.

“My biggest issue right now is my balance, and my walking. Because my right leg is weaker, I walk very slowly. I probably look like I’m a drunk. Walking’s not my favourite sport. I have to think about every single step I take. For me to get from the house to the car it’s like, ‘This is so slow, it’s work.’ It definitely slows down your day.”

She experiences pain in her legs, but refuses to take painkillers. “Sometimes it’s so bad I’d like to puke, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to take a pill. I’ll do something else. I’ll get on the Power Plate or I’ll pray. And half an hour later it’ll go away.”

Wood was a flight attendant but has been on disability since 2001. She said she misses her job, which her MS makes it impossible for her to do.

But she is determined to keep moving.

“When I told this one lady with MS who was in an electric wheelchair that I’d got a tricycle she said, ‘I wish I’d done that at your stage. My muscles are such that I’m unable to move them at all, so I could never ride a bike.’ I never want to get to that point, where I’ve lost something I can’t get back.’”

Wood knows that one day she’ll be doing the Grouse Grind again.

“I also know that if I believed one day I’d be in a wheelchair, I’d be in a wheelchair.”

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Raw food diet, movement is key for woman with MS

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